The Wine Industry: It’s Alright, Because it’s All White!
May 22, 2012
The inimitable Steve Heimoff certainly has a way with words. He recently wrote:
Yesterday’s stunning news that more minority babies are being born in the U.S. than white babies, for the first time ever, has tremendous implications for the domestic wine industry.
The problem, which in my opinion the wine industry has never wanted to admit much less deal with, is that wine is pretty much an upscale beverage for white people of European heritage. That’s worked well, in the past, but with these demographic changes (California already has more people of color than whites), a strategy that used to work seems destined to fail in the future.
I don’t see Latino or Hispanic people drinking wine, and the same goes for Asians and Blacks. African-Americans seem to prefer fortified drinks, like cognac, or beer, if they drink at all. The same goes for Latinos. Asian people don’t seem to drink very much wine either. Of course, as members of any one of these groups make money through the professions, they’re more likely to enjoy wine.
Posted in News | Tagged Steve Heimoff | Leave a comment //White Wine vs Red Wine Process.
May 22, 2012
Defining the “Fifth Column” of Wine.
May 21, 2012
It’s taken me a little while to finally get around to reading the whole Silicon Bank 2012-2013 Wine Industry Report, and the only reason that I do so was that I stumbled across this article on the ShipCompliant.org blog. It reads:
The historical metaphor of the “Fifth Column” is new to the world of wine marketing. As used by Rob McMillan and the authors of Silicon Valley Bank’s recent “State of the Wine Industry” report, it is a reference to the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s and the idea that “an ad-hoc group of loyalists emerging from within the city [of Madrid] who would rise up against the incumbent order”.
Silicon Valley Bank uses the term “Fifth Column” to refer to a “group of wine businesses partnering with producers to help sell direct”.
The Silicon Valley Bank report is referring to various companies in the wine industry that have been founded to support direct to consumer sales such as logistics, compliance, third party marketers and others companies that, taken together, provide suppliers with a support system for getting wine into the hands of consumers across the country.
Another way of understanding the “Fifth Column” is the recognition that after many fits and start, innovations, failures, successes and the introduction of new technologies, the wine industry now has new paths to market by which new and old customers can be cultivated with confidence. We view the emergence of compliantly operating third party marketers as the final piece of the “fifth column” puzzle.
We are convinced that 2012 is the year that third party wine marketers will demonstrate not only their staying power but also their long term importance to the wine consumer and wine supplier that they bring together.
Continue reading →
What is Wine Ullage?
May 21, 2012
Me too, God. Me too…
May 19, 2012
Are New Wine Brands Targeting Women Low on Substance?
May 18, 2012
Does the wine industry really know what women want? Not according to writer Elin McCoy, as she wrote recently in an article on Bloomberg.com:
According to the new “girly-wine” brand marketers, women wine drinkers want to be super-skinny, to toss their hair playfully as they choose their bottles to match moods, not foods. They also crave an easy-sipping flavor profile with a naughty edge of sweetness.
In the past few years the wine world has finally discovered that women drinkers are a coveted customer niche, which isn’t rocket-science since women represent nearly 60% of U.S. wine consumers, according to the Beverage Information Group’s 2011 Wine Handbook.
Most wine marketers are targeting women 21 to 34, but their efforts often treat this audience as if it had no more sophistication than a bevy of sorority sisters on spring break.
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